Ready for School gives writing development tips

Presented by Minneapolis ECFE

Parents, you can make a huge difference in helping your young child get ready for school. Set aside a few minutes every day to have fun with the following activities. Together we build school success!

"Write On!"

When children are first learning to write, they need opportunities to:
- Write while standing as well as sitting.
- Write using different kinds of paper and things to write with.
Help your child use a calendar to keep track of important days.
- Keep a weekly or monthly calendar.
- Get a set of small stickers such as stars, hearts or balloons.
- Use the stickers to mark special days such as birthdays, doctor and dentist visits or special events.
- Review the calendar every day. Cross off days past so your child learns how to look ahead to upcoming days.

Casually help your child write numbers and letters. (Have fun with this.) Tie writing letters and numbers to real world ideas. For example:
- Ask your child to practice writing:
* their age
* the number of people in your family
* the number of cousins, aunts, uncles
* the number of pets in your family.
- Ask your child for ideas of numbers of things to write about.
- Find numbers of things between 0 and 10.
- Help your child learn what zero means by asking him/her to write the number of something you do not have in your home.

Help your child trace or copy letters and numbers by using rainbow tracing. To rainbow trace:
- write a word or number your child is interested in.
- encourage your child to trace over a letter, number or word with different colored crayons or markers.
- as your child traces, say the letter or number aloud and ask your child to repeat after you.
- This activity helps children to learn the names of letters, numbers and words of interest as well as how to write them.

Information in this column is adapted from "Getting Kids Ready for Kindergarten" published by Early Childhood & Family Services. It's available online at the following url: http://mpls.k12.mn.us/School_Readiness.html

ECFE is Early Childhood Family Education, a program within Minneapolis Public Schools. Parents may register and join an ECFE class. Spring classes continue through June 8. For more information find ECFE online at: http://ecfe.mpls.k12.mn.us or call 612-668-3927.

Visit ECFE's Vehicle Day for hands-on fun exploring all kinds of great vehicles, Sat. May 15 at Sabathani Center parking lot, 38th St. and 3rd Ave. S., 10 a.m. -1 p.m. Event held rain or shine.